That started a war of words that has culminated with her telling the Italian glossy weekly Diva e Donna that Balotelli has been stalking her and causing her stress.

“I just want to ask Mario Balotelli to stop calling me in the middle of the night,” Fico told the weekly. “I want this to be a calm, tranquil pregnancy. I thought he was calling me to find out how I was but he shouted and called me names. He was trying to stress me psychologically. He wants to stalk me. All I ask of him is respect, at least for the sake of our baby.

“Mario must have called me over 30 times,” Fico added. “I thought he was calling to find out how I was, but he shouted and called me names.”

The former model, who counts Cristiano Ronaldo as another former boyfriend, said, “I never thought that the happiest moment of my life would turn out to be the most difficult. I just want my mother Antonietta and my brother Francesco with me when I give birth.”

Fico had to cancel a cruise recently because she didn’t want to jeopardize the baby’s health.

“Everything is OK apart from these telephone calls in the middle of the night from Mario Balotelli,” she said. “He knows the baby is his and he will be left with a lot of egg on his face. Asking me to take a DNA test was such a humiliating insult. I can’t wait to do it once the baby is born -– now would be too risky.

“I’m disappointed in him and I’d never get back together with him. We’ll meet for the good of the baby and that’s all. If he had told me, ‘Don’t say the baby’s mine,’ I’d have done it. I’d have kept the baby though because I don’t agree with abortion. I would never have expected Balotelli to abandon his child. He always told me he was abandoned when he was very young: so he knows what it means.”

Fico reiterated that when she told Balotelli she was pregnant on the eve of the Euro 2012 semifinal between Italy and Germany, she said he told her, “You have made me the happiest man in the world.”

“He said that if it was a boy he would chose the name and if it was a girl I could,” she added. “He said that as soon as he was back in Italy we would go together to the doctor’s for a scan. Then he just disappeared until he made his absurd [DNA] statement. I don’t think they were his words. In essence he has abandoned me. It’s one thing leaving someone but it’s another to leave the mother of your child on her own.”

Despite all that, Fico has invited the striker to play an active role in the child’s upbringing, saying, “He can see his child whenever he wants. My house will always be open even though he has shown a lack of respect. After the baby is born I will be happy to take the test and to publicize the result -– the DNA result won’t be wrong: either the baby will be black or white. In fact I want to tell Mario to come with me so we can do it together but I wonder if he will show up. He is going to be so embarrassed –- he knows the child is his. I just hope that then, as he said in his statement, he will accept his full responsibilities as a father. I don’t expect him to abandon his child.”